Gang accused of robberies

4:10pm Wednesday 27th August 2008

AN ORGANISED crime gang netted £500,000 in a series of armed raids, including one at a Swindon bank, that ended when the gang’s mastermind was shot dead, a court has heard.

The gang targeted cash in transit vans outside banks, carried out reconnaissance trips and used stolen cars for the robberies, Kingston Crown Court was told.

The crime spree ended in September 2007 when armed police shot dead two members of the gang after lying in wait outside a bank.

Getaway driver Terrence Wallace, 26, was arrested after fleeing the scene.

Brendan Kelly, opening the case for the prosecution, said: “Over an 18-month period this gang netted in excess of £500,000.”

The court was told ringleader Mark Nunes, 35, recruited gang members, selected targets and helped with the robberies.

But as time went by police started watching the gang and on September 13 last year Nunes and accomplice Andrew Markland, 36, were watched as they drove to a small town in Hampshire and targeted a Group 4 Security guard.

Armed police shot Nunes dead when he pointed a gun at the man.

As his accomplice Markland went to pick up the gun he, too, was shot, the court was told.

Wallace sped off in a Volvo which was later found abandoned.

Wallace, of Raynes Park, London, and three other alleged members of the gang, Victor Iniodu, 34, of Derinton Road, Tooting; Leroy Wilkinson, 29,of Presentation Mews, Palace Road, Streatham, and Adrian Johnson, 28, of Abbotts Place, Streatham Hill, all deny conspiracy to rob cash in transit between April 27 2006 and September 14 2007.

Johnson denies one additional count of possessing a prohibited weapon and one of robbing Colin Frewer of a cash box containing £25,000 on November 20, 2007.

Leroy Hall, Leon Mackenzie and Brian Henry, have admitted conspiracy to rob.

After the Hampshire incident police drew parallels with other incidents and accused the gang of 18 robberies – including one at the HSBC, in Gorse Hill, in December 2006.

The robbery spree began in April 2006, with a raid in Bristol, followed by a second in May.

After that they struck in Banbury and, on December 12, the gang struck in Bristol and Swindon, at the HSBC in Gorse Hill, the prosecutor said.

He said: “In Bristol, a Group 4 Security van was attacked by two men, who fled in a maroon saloon.

“Only £100 in travellers’ cheques was taken.

“At the same time, outside an HSBC in Swindon, two robbers in fluorescent yellow jackets struggled with the guard of a cash van before pointing a gun at him and a member of the public who had come to his aid.

“They grabbed the cash box, which contained £25,000, and ran off.”

The court heard Iniodu was traced by his mobile phone travelling several times from London to Swindon in the weeks before the robbery, once at 1am.

l The trial, which is expected to last seven weeks, continues

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